Mary on upper headwall of Superstar this morning.

Mary on upper headwall of Superstar this morning.

Bravo! The Killington Resort has done a great job recovering the mountain for skiing and riding. The deluge earlier this week should have knocked them for a loop. But their strategy of making tons of snow earlier in the month when the weather was right for snow making has left the mountain in great shape for skiing and riding.

Mary and I got to the mountain this morning around 10:15. We parked in Bay 1; 2 cars down from the K1 gondola. By 10:20, we were on the top of Killington Peak with skis on the ground. Killington Peak was cloud covered, with a fairly stiff breeze, so instead of taking a couple of runs in the North Ridge area, we decided to head directly to Bear Mountain.

At Bear, we found Bear Claw, Bear Trap, The Stash, Wild Fire, Skye Burst and Outer Limits all nicely groomed. The middle of Skye Burst had a section cordoned off for Killington Mountain School race training. We stopped for a few moments and watched some of the kids scream down Skye Burst, taking air as they crested the Viper Pit.

KMS student going around a gate on Skye Burst during race training. Click to enlarge.

During our time at Bear, it became obvious which trails had seen multiple passes with grooming machines. On most of the terrain, snow surfaces were loose granular mixed with fresh snow, which was falling continuously during our morning on the mountain. In the Stash, however, which is usually perfectly groomed, we did run into a stretch that had numerous golf ball sized chunks. Another grooming pass and skier traffic will have these broken up nicely for the weekend. But it did get our attention in a couple of places. On the flip side, we found very little evidence of ice on the trails. There were a few wind blown patches on some of the trails, but there was nothing remotely visible that was either clear or blue!

Snow making was also ongoing on many of the Green trails leading to Bear Mountain. We really don't ski them, so I can't tell you their condition, but we did see snow making operations, on both Bear Trax and Bear Cub. The new fan gun, installed on lower Skye Burst at the junction with Dream Maker was also making snow this morning.

Snow making is ongoing around the Killington Resort. The fan gun on lower Skye Burst was operating this morning. Click to enlarge.

In our usual fashion, we moved from Skye Burst over to Cruise Control and the Needles Eye area. Cruise, Needless, Bitter Sweet, and High Road had really nice surfaces. For some reason, the mountain had a couple of bamboo poles with a caution sign posted at the junction of Cruise Control and Great Eastern. While we were skiing it, we could not see anything worthy of a caution sign, but on the Skye Ship Gondola a ski patroller told us that some run off from the early week deluge had caused a spring to poke through the surface. Grooming and natural snow seemed to have covered it up, but I guess the resort was being extra careful to tell mid week skiers and riders to pay attention.

Without question, the run of the day was Skye Lark. From the very top to the bottom at the Super Star quad is was just beautifully set up. Upper and Middle Skye Lark had a soft, loose granular surface. It was very consistent. It did not have any of the chunks we experienced on other trails. Lower Skye Lark was similar, with the exception that the resort had made so much snow on the trail that it was filled with nice gentle rollers. From the High Road junction to the bottom, lower Skye Lark was a nice combination of machine groomed snow riding atop huge snow whales.

As we usually do when we are on the Bear Mountain/Skye Peak side of the resort, we finished our morning on Superstar. The upper headwall was nicely groomed. The middle of the pitch had a few wind blown sections. Skiers left was filled with loose snow just ripe for little bump style turns. Middle Superstar was a groomed flat cruiser. Pick your line and let it rip would be the easiest way to describe it. The Lower headwall was a little chunky, but when I skied it I was in bright sunshine. You just had to pick your line and make your turns. It was a nice run to end the day on the mountain.

The weather forecast at Killington for the rest of the week is calling for the snow flurries to continue. They are not amounting to much, but every little bit counts......let it snow!